REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
Roles of the integrated stress response in regulation of inflammatory reactions
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China
- 2Centre for Eye Research Australia Ltd, East Melbourne, Australia
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The integrated stress response (ISR) is a conserved cyto-protective mechanism, which has fundamental roles in maintaining cell viability under various conditions when intracellular and/or extracellular homeostasis is disrupted. ISR features phosphorylation of the alpha subunit of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 (eIF2a), leading to a global reduction in protein synthesis. Emerging evidence suggests that activation of ISR may have anti-inflammatory effects. In this concise review, we summarize the current experimental evidence in this regard from both in vitro and in vivo studies. It is suggested that ISR may represent a potential drug target for developing novel anti-inflammatory therapies.
Keywords: anti-inflammation, ATF4, eIF2a, GADD34, inflammatory disease, integrated stress response, Phosphorylation, protein translation
Received: 16 Nov 2025; Accepted: 02 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Cui, Jiang, Liu, Liu and Xing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaopei Cui
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